


Leaving

by npask



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Sad, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-12-06 19:40:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18224555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/npask/pseuds/npask
Summary: Because I feel like Klaus and Vanya have a lot in common and they would have been close.





	Leaving

There was a small creaking at the door, the hinges, like the rest of the house, were lacking in love. Following the sound was a thin shaft of light, just barely making it to the foot of her bed. With far too much practice, Vanya hastily moved to click off the flashlight she’d had lit, shoving it under her pillow alongside her book. She planted her head firmly into the pillow hoping, praying, that she wouldn’t be caught. If she laid still and practiced calm breathing he might fall for it.

After a minute of silence, she cautiously cracked open an eye in the direction of the door. From the blinding light of the hallway there was Klaus, just barely poking his head in through the door. She met his gaze and with a slight huff, rolled over, eyes open and un-focussed towards the wall. The door clicked closed and she could distinctly pick out the soft patter of socked-feet moving towards her bed. She pretended like it wasn’t happening. Usually if she ignored him, he would eventually leave. They all did.

“He’s sending us out again tomorrow,” Klaus said, his voice barely even a whisper. She squeezed her eyes closed tight, pretending that nothing was happening. She didn’t want to hear this, she never wanted to hear any of this. It had nothing to do with her, that’s what she’d always been told.

There was a soft creaking from her floor, her brother had taken up his usual place leaning against her mattress. She tried to pretend he wasn’t there. If she pretended hard enough it might come true. 

The room have been silent if not for his breathes, laboured. He was panicking. Again. 

She was silent.

“Vanya, I don’t want to go.” His voice broke. She screwed her eyes shut. If she pretended hard enough, it wasn’t really happening. There were a million other things to think about, so why couldn’t her mind find something else? Just shut her mind down, go to sleep, wouldn’t that be easier?

“They’re just getting louder, I just want them to stop,” he choked out, a quiet sob building. After a moment of debate and a soft sigh, Vanya rolled over so that she was facing the back of his head leaning against her mattress. Her brother wasn’t much bigger than her, not as much as he should have been. Even in the dim lighting she could see how his boney shoulders shook from the silent sobbing. 

She cursed their father.

Reaching a hand out from under her pillow, where she’d been clutching her book and flashlight for dear life, she place a hand on his shoulder. His thin, frail shoulder. He shouldn’t have been so thin, thinner than herself even with all the training. It was wrong.

“We should leave,” she whispered to him. As soon as the words left her mouth she wanted them back but her breath was caught in her throat. He would tell on her, he knew and he would tell their father of her plans. Her heart squeezed and twisted at what she would face when he figured out what she’d been planning. How long she’d been planning.

Klaus didn’t say anything, not a word. He reached a hand up and met hers on his shoulder, grasping it. The sobbing continued, his entire thin body shaking from the act. After a few more minutes of the soft sobbing, Vanya let out a breath and pulled her hand away. Klaus didn’t move. 

With great care to be quiet, she slid the thick, scratchy comforter off and slid off the bed next to her brother. She wrapped an arm around his frail shoulders and pulled him close. He said nothing, but the sobbing slowly subsided and his shoulders stopped shaking.

“Are you really going to do it? Leave” Klaus asked her, wiping his tears away on his sleeves. She moved her arm away and closed her eyes. 

“I think so.” The words were barely a whisper but Klaus nodded anyways. Now it was Vanya that felt close to tears. It wasn’t from the fact that she’d told her brother the truth, it was that she’d actually said it aloud at all. 

She was going to leave.

“I don’t think I could do it.” His voice was distorted in that way voices get after crying. “I would be too afraid.” Tears welled at the corners of her eyes. This was wrong, she wasn’t supposed to get emotional like this about leaving. It was the right thing to do. She didn’t belong. She wanted somewhere to belong.

“I think I’m more afraid to stay.”

Klaus was back in his own room by the time Vanya woke up.

She was gone before he woke up for the day.


End file.
